1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a menu display apparatus for displaying menu items on a screen and, more particularly to a menu display apparatus such as a television receiver, a personal computer having a display means such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like which is provided with a function of displaying a plurality of setting items on a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display apparatus such as a television receiver, a personal computer or the like displays letters of a plurality of menu items on a screen of a cathode ray tube (CRT), an LCD or the like. Such a display apparatus employs a method in which, in order to distinguish a menu item selected by a user by using a selection means such as a remote controller or the like from other menu items not selected, only the selected menu item is displayed in half-tone brightness or a different color.
Such a method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,626, for example.
Further, there has been proposed a method in which, in order to facilitate the selecting operation at the time of selecting one menu item among a plurality of menu items, the plurality of menu items are assigned with different numbers respectively and an arbitrary number (that is, an arbitrary menu item) is selected by pushing a numerical key of a remote controller corresponding to the arbitrary menu item. Such a method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,626,892 and 4,641,205.
Further, in a case where a scene adapted to input numerical values is displayed as shown in FIG. 14, there has been proposed a technique in which a short bar b is displayed and blinked at a position adjacent to an item to be inputted so as to urge a user to input a numerical value at the position.
However, of the aforesaid conventional methods, the method of displaying the selected menu item in a different color so as to distinguish it from other menu items has a drawback that this method can not be employed at all in the case where the display means (CRT or LCD) used for display the menu items is not a color display means. Further, the aforesaid method of displaying the selected menu item in half-tone brightness has a drawback that it is difficult for a user to distinguish the selected item when the display means used for display the menu items is not a color display means.
The aforesaid method of selecting an arbitrary menu item by pushing a corresponding numerical key of a remote controller disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,892 is inconvenient in its usage in a manner that, since there is no means for displaying the number of the numerical key corresponding to the menu item selected by a user, the user can not confirm an erroneous pushing operation when the user erroneously pushes a numerical key which does not correspond to the menu item selected by the user.
Furthermore, the aforesaid method of blinking the short bar b at a position adjacent to an item to be inputted as shown in FIG. 14 has a drawback that it is difficult to distinguish the bar since it is short in size and hence difficult to perform the setting operation of the item.